For starters, you are taking this article out of context and way too seriously. This is not serious journalism. Chan's comments were friendly rivalry. Afterall Patrick Chan is quite a few years younger than Plushenko and the man to beat as it were. I am sure Plushenko would be saying the same things had he stuck around for the past few years. All skaters make comments from time to time. I did not find the article that damaging towards Plushenko. Also there are many men in the field who are going to give Plushenko a run for his money, besides Patrick Chan.

The most "offensive" part about this article is the author speaks the truth but in a twisted way. This is the most dangerous type of article which will lead many people who do not follow the Sports having the wrong impression about a person's character. Portraying a great athlete as a arrogant ******* will make the one who beat him a hero. I suppose that is what this lady is aiming for.

Besides, it is about GPF, Plushenko is not in it, why always drag him into articles? Let alone use half of the article to portray this "arrogant *******". She's overdone it.

As for Chan's answer, I really did not take offensive since well, Chan is just being...Chan. Yes, APPARENTLY Chan was joking, but it was a bad joke, I hope he knows that. Being funny is one thing, being irreverence is another. I am sure that he is not intentional to be irreverence. But as a grown-up man, he should have his own judgement on this.

For starters, you are taking this article out of context and way too seriously. This is not serious journalism. Chan's comments were friendly rivalry. Afterall Patrick Chan is quite a few years younger than Plushenko and the man to beat as it were. I am sure Plushenko would be saying the same things had he stuck around for the past few years. All skaters make comments from time to time. I did not find the article that damaging towards Plushenko. Also there are many men in the field who are going to give Plushenko a run for his money, besides Patrick Chan.

I do not think this article will make any damage to Plushenko. If he had time to read it, he probably would just laugh at it. And it would not damage the image of him among his fans since they all know who he truly is. No damage done to other skater's fans since well, they do not care.

But face it, if this article is just a bit less ridiculous and leaves Chan's comments out, the tune here would be discussing how arrogant Plushenko is, since her assumption about Plushenko is not new at all. You can find the same opinions here. You probably would argue that since people here already assumed the worse, why so offended by hers? Well, posters here are expressing their own opinions as a fan of figure skating. The author of this article is to portray a person using her influence as a journalist (or at least she used to be one).

At the end of the day, only fans got hurt I guess. But that is what is take for being a fan. And being fans, we have the right to speak up!

Plushenko is old relative to the rest of the current amateur skaters. So is Brian Joubert. Heck, Michelle Kwan was already considered "old" at 22 when she won her fifth world title.

Plushenko was old by fans and media in Vancouver too, an age that Abott, Joubert, Verner, Daisuke and Lysacek have reached or about to reach too, but I dont see articles pointing out how old they are or how impressive they skate despite their age. Truth is that he is older than the rest but it 's been written so much and so repetitive since he was coming back in 2009 when he was 26-27 that it is just an uninspired comment. All the above men will be older in Sochi than he was in Vancouver but I would cringe if someone was calling Daisuke old by Sochi time. So I dont see the point in an article. Hongbo was 37 at Vancouver and I didnt see a dozen of articles pointing it out, even if in pairs they get to compete further than 30 he was stil old.Besides how the body strength of an athlete preserves I suppose is different for each person.

Btw, they are now many skaters who grew up with watching Plush, ex. Misha Ge or Hanyu but in their interviews the age difference is mentioned in a total different way. That article reminds me of the gossip shows we have on Tv, they know little of nothing and they talk about everything, but it has nothing to do with Chan, rather the journalist.

I think Chan heard and repeated so many times Plushenko was old that he isn't able to realize Abbott, Joubert or Daisuke aren't very young either. Probably because Plushenko was very young when he started to compete in seniors and he's been around since...forever. When I first read Johnny Weir was inspired by Pushenko to pursue a FS career, I was , because I know Johnny isn't much younger than Evgeni, it is difficult to understand that somebody you were watching on TV when you were a kid isn't that old afterall.

Plushenko was old by fans and media in Vancouver too, an age that Abott, Joubert, Verner, Daisuke and Lysacek have reached or about to reach too, but I dont see articles pointing out how old they are or how impressive they skate despite their age. Truth is that he is older than the rest but it 's been written so much and so repetitive since he was coming back in 2009 when he was 26-27 that it is just an uninspired comment. All the above men will be older in Sochi than he was in Vancouver but I would cringe if someone was calling Daisuke old by Sochi time. So I dont see the point in an article. Hongbo was 37 at Vancouver and I didnt see a dozen of articles pointing it out, even if in pairs they get to compete further than 30 he was stil old. Besides how the body strength of an athlete preserves I suppose is different for each person.

It's because Plushenko has been medaling at major international (senior) events since 1998 and won his first World title in 2001. He won the silver behind Yagudin in 2002 which was a decade ago and some consider those ten years equivalent to two skating generations. He's been a major force in skating between those years, even when Joubert won his first World title in 2007 and Daisuke won the silver medal behind him.

So yes, I stand by my comments that he is old compared to the majority of the current crop of amateur skaters because it is true. But because he's been such a dominant fixture for so long, it's hard not to talk about his age. Am I defending the writer? Heck no! I'm simply pointing out that even at 30, it seems like Plushenko has been on the skating scene forever, whereas Joubert and Takahashi have been at the top of their game for ~ five years. And Abbott? No one outside of skating knows who he is because he hasn't really ... won anything major. (Apologies in advance, but it's true.)

Same thing about Michelle Kwan (yes, reference to her again). In the early 2004-2005 season, the one of the American networks made a super-short fluff piece of her talking about her "being older." And she was only 24. Again, it's because she started competing at the senior level when she was 14 (~ten years). Watch here:

As for the media not pointing out Hongbo's age, that is absolutely not true. It was just said in the way that inspired hope since he and Xue had been disappointed the previous two Olympic cycles. His and Xue's willingness to come back and try for that one title that they needed to complete their collection (note that Plushenko already earned a gold in 2006 when he was making his comeback for the 2010 Olympics) was honestly a story/new article begging to be written; something warm and fuzzy for people to believe in "the spirit of the Olympics" and whatnot.

I think Chan heard and repeated so many times Plushenko was old that he isn't able to realize Abbott, Joubert or Daisuke aren't very young either. Probably because Plushenko was very young when he started to compete in seniors and he's been around since...forever. When I first read Johnny Weir was inspired by Pushenko to pursue a FS career, I was , because I know Johnny isn't much younger than Evgeni, it is difficult to understand that somebody you were watching on TV when you were a kid isn't that old afterall.

Yes, and I read somewhere that in 2002, the Chinese media referring Plushenko as an "old athlete (老将） (literally translated from Chinese, but they tend to call all experienced and well known athletes that way regardless of the age)", though in fact he was only 19 years old It is a good laugh. Just saying, in this case it is a respectful way calling someone "old" because it has nothing to do with the actual age.

Plushenko was old by fans and media in Vancouver too, an age that Abott, Joubert, Verner, Daisuke and Lysacek have reached or about to reach too, but I dont see articles pointing out how old they are or how impressive they skate despite their age. Truth is that he is older than the rest but it 's been written so much and so repetitive since he was coming back in 2009 when he was 26-27 that it is just an uninspired comment. All the above men will be older in Sochi than he was in Vancouver but I would cringe if someone was calling Daisuke old by Sochi time. So I dont see the point in an article. Hongbo was 37 at Vancouver and I didnt see a dozen of articles pointing it out, even if in pairs they get to compete further than 30 he was stil old.Besides how the body strength of an athlete preserves I suppose is different for each person.

Btw, they are now many skaters who grew up with watching Plush, ex. Misha Ge or Hanyu but in their interviews the age difference is mentioned in a total different way. That article reminds me of the gossip shows we have on Tv, they know little of nothing and they talk about everything, but it has nothing to do with Chan, rather the journalist.

Although Takahashi and Joubert are very accomplished skaters, I think they probably lack Plushenko's stature in the sport; their record in major events is not as strong. Verner, Abbott and Lysacek certainly aren't thought of as having comparable achievements to Plushenko. Abbott and Lysacek have had considerably shorter careers and although Joubert, Verner and Takahashi have been around for a comparable number of seasons to Plushenko, these seasons were consecutive, which makes it seem as though their careers have not been as long as Plushenko. Plushenko, along with Pang and Tong, is the only skater left from the 1990s. Taken together, it does make him seem as though he's considerably older than the others.

Though FWIW, I'm starting to see more of elder statesman type articles about Joubert, too. And like you, I think that the problem in the article isn't what Chan said so much as what DiManno wrote.

As a Patrick fan, if Yuzuru said that, I would chalk it up to good old fashion "trash talk," isn't that what athletes do in sports? And I have never understood all the criticism over Patrick's comments in the past or in this article because I always thought it was "trash talk." Some people, not all, are just way too sensitive and it makes me wonder if they're fans of other sports because Patrick's comments would be considered tame, if he was a basketball player.

Generally, I agree: no one would bat an eye at this if these athletes were in any other sport. I don't exactly approve of everything the dude's said, but these over-the-top reactions somehow just make me root for him more.

It doesn't even sound like Chan was intending to trash talk in this case. It sounds like either mild humour, or the kind of casual exaggeration that young people often make when they converse with each other. The comedian Louis C.K. did a bit on how Americans, "go right to the top with our words" when talking to each other (and it happens in Canada, too). A bucket of chicken wings is called "amazing" and anything slightly amusing is "hilarious." It's a way of keeping others' interest or being slightly humorous. This sounds like the same kind of thing:"Wow, he's like, 36 years old; that's incredible."

I remember well, how the same Rosie DiManno, wrote true panegyrics about Plushy in 2006 and 2009/10 (before Oly!) ... interesting is her transformation, in an ordinary offensive tabloid "patriotic" blotter